School's Out
by precious-passenger
Summary: It's Kurt first exam at Dalton Academy and he's freaking out. This one shot is about his thoughts the night before exam.


Kurt had been doing nothing but pace around his room for the last half hour. His notebooks were scattered, making it difficult to navigate his way around his room. He'd eaten almost half of his weight in snacks and fruits and nothing edible was left in the pantry except Finn's disgusting Cheetos' packs. Kurt grimaced, but not two minutes passed before he headed to the kitchen again.

It was his first exam at Dalton Academy and he was absolutely freaking out.

Ten minutes later, Kurt came back to his room with a half eaten pack of Cheetos in his hand. He was positively disgusted in himself and his hands were greasy, so he headed again out of his room to wash them. He'd done nothing useful but eat and wash his hands since he got back home.

He had convinced Wes that today he couldn't attend Warblers' practice because of an emergency and got home early. On his way home he had so many plans of how he could manage his time and by his calculations, he'd be able to even do a revision before sleeping. But, he couldn't have been any more useless than he already was.

Well, that's wrong. He'd be much more useless tomorrow, during the exam their teacher was going to take. He doubted he could do much besides writing his own name and then the rest of the hour he'd stare at the blank page.

Kurt couldn't study. He was too nervous to study. So, for days he'd avoided even looking at his books, putting it off for a better time. But now, this was the last chance.

Time… Time was ticking and there was nothing Kurt could do about it. Nothing except waste it.

The pit in his stomach was getting bigger and bigger and no matter how many breaks Kurt had given himself, it wasn't going to fade away. Quite the opposite, in fact. It was getting worse, as if he was about to throw up at any second.

He sat on his chair and downed a mouthful of coffee. He wasn't going to sleep unless he covered all the material for quiz and he was barely through chapter one.

What would happen if he failed? They couldn't suspend him, could they? He'd be held back a year and everyone would laugh at him for getting the lowest grade it was humanly possible to get. Well, look at that, they'd finally know that Kurt Hummel was nothing but a failure.

Kurt yearned for something, anything to calm him down. He could call Blaine and ask for help but he was too proud to do that. And Blaine wouldn't understand, he never did understand Kurt's concerns over studying. He'd always been a top student and didn't even get out of his room unless his homework for the day was done.

No, Blaine would only make it worse. Because as soon as he found out that Kurt was stuck in the first chapter, he'd laugh at him and think that he was stupid.

So, he got up with his notebook and lied on the bed, putting his feet up to the wall and trying to force some knowledge into his dumb mind.

He didn't hear the knocks on the door and he was woken up from his numb, almost comatose, stupor with a gentle nudge to his shoulder.

"Carole?" he said, questioningly and wiped the drool from the corner of his mouth.

"Hey sweetie." Her motherly voice was just the opposite of what Kurt felt at that moment. His mind was a chaos and he was in the verge of making up excuses to miss out on the test tomorrow. That included but not limited to leaving the state, dying, catching a cold, more dying and begging the teacher not to fail him. He thought of his dad and wondered if they got their honeymoon money back in case they suspend Kurt? Probably not.

"Are you going to sleep? It's one AM." Carole said, stroking Kurt too disheveled hair and smoothening out the knots that Kurt had made by running his hands too many times through them.

Kurt's stomach dropped at the mention of time. It got too late, too soon. He tried taking long deep breaths to calm himself down. It was a strange feeling. Because the number one cure they suggest you to do once you got dizzy is lie down. So what could you do when you're dizzy and lying in your bed?

"Do you want to change out of your uniform?"

Kurt looked down, almost shocked to see that he still hadn't changed out to his comfortable clothes. His shirt was sweaty and his pants had gotten wrinkled. He'd need to iron them tomorrow before heading to his execution. One more thing to add to his already dwindling supply of time.

"What's wrong, Kurt?" she asked, worry apparent in his voice.

"I'm not feeling too well," Kurt admitted and that was the understatement of the year. He felt as if he was about to die. He got up with some difficulty, wincing at the pain in his neck from the weird angle he'd been napping.

"You could sleep with me tonight," Carole offered, "Burt had decided to go pick up some second hand furniture from his friend down in Columbus and would get back late. It gets kind of lonely and hauntingly familiar in being alone in the double bed," Carole admitted, "it reminds me of the time before I met your dad and after Christopher's death."

"Thanks for the offer, Carole," he said, patting her hand, "I can't sleep. I have to study."

"Don't be too hard on yourself, Kurt," she told him.

She didn't know that all the trouble he got right now was from not being too hard on himself. If he'd been more like Blaine, studying when he was supposed to, he'd be asleep by now.

"I know how you feel like. I used to be so stressed before my exams when I was studying to become a nurse," she smiled sympathetically and hugged Kurt tight to his chest, hitting Kurt with the smell of perfume and freshly baked cookies.

It was four in the morning when Kurt finished the chapters. His head was throbbing and his eyelids were pulsating hot pain. He didn't feel ready, not at all. But, the worrying had been constantly on his mind that he couldn't feel it anymore.

He tiptoed around to his parents' room. He saw that his dad was back and snoring loudly. He remembered all the times as a kid and a teenager he'd snuck in his bed, just to watch him sleep and listen to his breathing. He remembered that when he was just a tiny kid who'd lost his mom, he wouldn't climb in the bed, knowing that somehow that was his mom's place and he couldn't do that, but instead settled on the rug beside it and sleep there. Burt had gotten used to watching over his feet before waking up, after he'd stepped too many times on little Kurt. More than once he'd gotten down too, to sleep beside Kurt on that little rug to ward of his son's many nightmares.

Listening to his father breathe and knowing that he was there would somehow calm him down. His heart tugged painfully. Would his dad love him if he failed this test?

Right now, Kurt decided, he needed a mom. He scooted to Carole's side and was surprised that her arms opened almost instantly. Carole began humming inside his ear and after a few moments of peace, Kurt fell asleep.


End file.
